What do you dream about at night? Do you usually remember your dreams? Are they particularly vivid or lucid? Any recurring themes? Do you have nightmares or night terrors? What do your dreams mean to you? Tell me all about it!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Answers

Okay, here are mine. This one is pretty standard. Two nights ago I dreamt that I went to work topless. My coworkers balked but I couldn't see what the big deal was; I just wanted to be comfortable. In grade school I used to dream about going to school in my pajamas. Except back then I was embarassed to be so exposed and yet no one noticed or acted like it was a big deal. I heard that these types of dreams are supposed to mean that you are comfortable with yourself, which makes some sense.

Last night I dreamt that I went to a party at Jerry Seinfeld's expansive, luxurious house with all kinds of fabulous people. He came on to me and I discovered he was a sexual sadist. He tried to encase my body in glass and put shards inside of me. This wasn't exaclty a nightmare, but it was anxiety inducing. Of course there was more to it that I can't remember well enough to verbalize. I am not attracted to Jerry Senifeld and have no experience with sexual sadism; I can't really figure out what it is supposed to represent.

I used to have anxiety dreams a lot. I'd dream about failing math tests. I used to have these dreams a lot, even though it had been years since I'd even taken math. Once I actually dreamt that I went to math, passed the test and everything was fine. I woke up feeling so triumphant and I don't think I've had one of those dreams since.

Sometimes I have very vivid dreams about being stoned. I haven't noticed maarijuana to have an effect on my dreams. And though I have always had very memorable dreams I discovered them to be more detailed and colorful on prescription psychotropics like effexor and buspar.

I also tend to have a lot of dreams about creeping around unknown in other people's homes. I'm never sure why I'm sneaking around but I'm always woried about getting caught. I could go on and on, but tell me some of yours first!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

When I was a waitress (even years after, actually), I would dream that I couldn't get to a table, or I couldn't ring in an order, or I didn't bring something to a table. Just your standard stressed out at work dreams.

My dog died two months ago, and I have at least one dream a week about him, or a dog just like him. I miss him a lot, and think of him often, so it makes sense that he's there. He also may be visiting me from the beyond. You never know.

I graduated from college in '94, and I had the best, best time. I have a college dream at least once a month. I love those dreams. Everything is very familiar, and I'm supposed to be on my campus, but nothing looks like it does in real life. Once there was an amusement park on the second floor of my on-campus apartment. Oh, I'm usually trying to befriend my college boyfriend. We parted on a sour note, because I was snotty (a couple of years after grad), and I think I'd like to know that he still likes me.

Like Jill, I have the naked recurring dreams. I'm usually somewhere public, like shopping or work, just minding my own business, and then I realize I have no top on, or no clothes at all. Then I try to find a big shirt to cover up.

When I was little I'd have the recurring dream that I was flying. Just floating in the air in my parents' house or in the backyard. Those were the freakin coolest dreams!!! I haven't had one of those in a very long time.

I dream that I'm being chased at least once every other week. I never get caught, but I'm being chased by a murderer, or a monster, or any bad character you can think of. I hope I never get caught. I usually wake up and turn over the pillow before that dream can finish.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

I had an extremely long, involved dream on July 1st which started off with Dave Holmes (of MTV) and me hitchhiking across America, and I had somehow transformed myself into Dave's twin, that was critical to the plot for some reason. Anyway, we had adventure after adventure, and around about Oklahoma, we met up with George Clooney and became a trio of travellers.

Next, George and I started hanging out more and more (Dave was off doing his own thing), and it was killing me that I was a female in a male's body, because George and I were just "clicking", you know?, and he had no idea I was a woman...

So then the plot twist happened, and we reached the West Coast, our journey was over. I had no idea how to return to my female state, and I was aching with real hurt because I had fallen completely in love with George, and he had been kind of lamenting the fact that he'd never met the right woman...so I took a chance and explained to him the truth, that I was not who I appeared to be, and we both were sad that circumstances weren't different. And George, bless him, even walked around holding my hand, when we were alone, loving me for who I was inside, not what I looked like outwardly.

[Ed. Note. *HOWL*!!]

Then, thank god, it was like I wished and wished and wanted it just _so_ badly that it happened: I returned to my body, I was me again. Only, in the dream, my body wasn't the body I'm sitting in, typing this-- I was a short, frizzly-/curly-haired girl, with fair, small features...and I had an English accent (much to my surprise and pleasure). I looked sort of "romantic" Victorian English, if that makes any sense. I was _so_ relieved to be in my body again...and my single need was to go find George and tell him I was back, I was me.

There was a very happy reunion, embracing, tears, joy, and goodbyes as we left Dave, and headed somewhere secluded, in the mountains somewhere, where we made our home.

Next, it was like scenes from over the years, as time went by, and we were so happy, being intimate, cudding, talking, raising our children. And I did not want to wake up, I kept going back to sleep and back to the dream, reluctant to let it go. Had that familiar sense of sorrow when I woke up for good. Hate that. But love knowing that sense of togetherness and the feeling of being in love, and loved, that is so strong and real in my dreams. So I guess the benefits outweigh the bummer.

(and yup, I saw The Perfect Storm at the movies yesterday afternoon, and yup, the very last thing I saw on TV before falling asleep on my floor was a wonderful interview with George Clooney on the Charlie Rose show.)

Aren't you glad you asked, Jilly! And I'm sure you know this, but Effexor lists "abnormal dreams" as a side effect. I have to say, I've been really enjoying them, I have weird dreams almost every night now. It's like getting free cable movie channels. ;)

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

duh, of course I meant I'd seen The Perfect Storm the day before I had the dream-- not, as I wrote, yesterday. I wrote the dream up to share with my (wonderfully indulgent and patient!) friends, and when I copied it into here, I was a sloppy editor. Thirty-five pardons! (a thousand seemed a little excessive) :)

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Klee - OK, I'm not going to discuss Eddie Izzard anymore on Gwen's forum. But are you an Eddie Izzard fan? This can't be a coincidence. Eddie looks just like that Dave guy on MTV when he has a goatee (which is often - Jon Stewart on the Daily Show even said it)...he is totally in to the feminine thing (woman in a man's body? perhaps..) hmmm?

Anyway, I have weird dreams about trying to use old rotary telephones in an emergency, and I can't remember how because we've us push buttons..ughh....boring

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Here's my weirdest dream, from about three or four years ago:

My friend Jon and I are walking down a street in the middle of the day. All of the sudden it is nighttime, although in the dream this strikes neither Jon nor myself as odd. We are going up to peoples' houses, knocking on doors looking for someone we know. I guess in the dream we knew that person lived on that street, but didn't know what house.

When we are on the steps of a little cottage, a very long funeral procession starts coming down the street. It's not OBVIOUSLY a funeral procession but a very long line of, well, kind of convertible black limos. Standing up in each of the limos are large, burly men with large guns. There are a lot of spotlights coming from a place I cannot discern. Jon and I quickly hide in the bushes in the front yard of this house. There are more men walking through the yards of the houses on the street and all the while limos are driving down the street with more burly men, more guns.

Then, the limos driving by are no longer carrying men with ammo, they were carrying live men in coffins. Don't ask me how I knew they were alive in a coffin, it's just one of those wierd dream things. Jon and I also "knew" that this was sort of a last rite-- a very public condemnation of these men in the coffins and they are being taken on a little parade through the city before they're killed.

My dreamself looks to Jon and in a very matter-of-fact voice, I say, "Ahh. This is the death march. It will lead to the public execution of many organized crime officials."

Then I woke up. How wierd was that?

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Erika, I'm really sorry about your dog. I think it's really healthy that you are having dreams about him.

I have weird dreams all the time...in fact, all my dreams are weird. I dream very vividly, in color, sometimes with soundtracks. I tell my husband about my dreams a lot, and he thinks I am just so strange. I normally really enjoy my dreams - like going to a movie, but they can sometimes be too real or too confusing or even scary/gross. I've often thought of keeping a dream journal to capture these wacky visions, but that would mean I'd have to have the perfect house that has the computer area in the kitchen that would be warmly lit and I would sit with my fresh coffee in my fuzzy slippers and record my dreams before everyone woke up -- now THERE's a dream!

As far as recurring dreams, I've had the recurring naked/not fully clothed dream, the teeth-falling-out dream (that's a gross one), the flying low & slow dream, the car rolling backwards down a steep hill dream, and the I-can't-find-my-mother's-house dream (hate that one).

Last night's dream was pretty wacky: First I was with my husband and there was a guy from my work with us...and they guy from work was putting the moves on me right in front of husband, who was smiling..it was very intensely erotic and not at all unpleasant. Then, cut to being AT work...only it's more like a school with classrooms. And there's a woman there, not an employee, who has a pumpkin wrapped up in a blanket like a baby, and she won't leave. And some employee-guys are trying to get her to leave, and they touch her "baby" and then somehow get dirt on her inner-thigh, and she screams and causes a big scene. The next thing I know, my boss (company president) tells me he needs a bodyguard, so I raced off to ask one guy and then anxiously went to find the other guy that was making out with me earlier...and we couldn't keep our hands off each other but he had to deal with the pumpkin woman who was after my boss.

Funny thing is, I didn't remember about any part of the dream except the pumpkin woman until I saw Mr. Makeout at work...he sure looked good! ;-) And I'm sure I blushed when I saw him...but he didn't see, so it's okay.

Sweet Dreams Everyone!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

There was a strange little mall near my house that had, as part of the decorations, a diamond-shaped reflecting pond with a bridge (no handrails) through the center of it, and a fountain. Spaced at regular intervals and sitting on little concrete pedestals that kept them level with the water, were gold plaster or bronze frogs, all facing the same direction.

My most recent ex--with whom I am friendly--is in a band that wrote a song about the frogs. The mall is being torn down and the frogs are gone, and when I verified that, I went home that night and had a dream about giving frogs to my ex and the rest of the band. They weighed a lot and the band was happy to get them. I kept one on my porch.

When I woke up, I was amused. Thus inspired, I decided to write the construction company to ask about the whereabouts of the frogs. Needless to say, they probably think I'm insane. They have not responded. I will be shocked if they do.

(My ex would be politely appreciative but not particularly overjoyed to have a frog--he doesn't have much storage space in his apartment. The lead singer, however, would be ecstatic.)

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

My dreams have always been fairly easy to interpet. Causes of stress and anxiety show up there. When I moved away, I dreamt I tried to go see my old pyschiatrist, but I couldn't get to his office because they were remodeling. I dream in color. Sometimes I can fly, but I *never* can run. It ends up being like slow motion and very frustrating. I have elevator dreams where I'm stuck in an elevator and it is leaning at an angle or something weird is wrong with it and I can't get out. I was told that elevator dreams mean you feel out of control. After I got out of an abusive marriage, I dreamt for years that some guy was chasing me to hurt me. Then, finally I dreamt that I stopped, unafraid, turned around and faced the person and told them to leave me alone. I rarely have those dreams anymore, (only when I get in abusive relationships, duh). I think dreams are cool and can teach us a lot about what is stirring around in the backs of our minds. I read you can learn to direct your dreams which would be really neat. I'd be having sex with George Clooney every night. Hey, by the way, today is my BD. I'm 21 with 22 years of experience :)

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Yay! Fun stuff, everybody! Klee, I think you and George Clooney must have been lovers in a past life. :) Has anybody else ever had the teeth falling out dream like Laura? I've never had one but I read once that they're pretty commmon. Suposedly it means you're subconsciously anxious about aging or something like that. Does that ring true? Has anyone ever had a succubus/incubus expereince? Or woken up and still been in that paralyzed state? Once when I was a kid I woke up and saw a huge water bird (like a crane or a heron) standing at the foot of my bed staring down at me. I tried to speak or scream but I was totally paralyzed, my body was still dreaming but my eyes were open and I was awake. It was a very profound experience for me and I have always remembered it.

I dream about my Uncle Bob fairly regularly, who died young about twelve years ago. Whenever I see him in my dream I am always so excited because I know he is dead and yet here he is with me anyway. I'm always like "Bob, where have you been?! I'm so glad you could come see me!" It's pretty cool; gives me the warm fuzzies. And I love it when I'm awake and going about my normal day and then suddenly I have a mental flash out of nowhere and remember some freaky scene I dreamt about the night before.

Speaking of freaky scenes, I still remember the first erotic dream I ever had. I was probably about 11 or 12 and it was a lot like the Duran Duran video for "Wild Boys" but even darker and sexier. I remember feeling like I was being initiated into some sort of secret underworld.

Happy Birthday, Vicki! Dream on, y'all.....

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

Happy day after your birthday, Vicki!

Last night I dreamed I went to a small town and did all kinds of evil pranky stuff, like I was Tom Green or someone. I pretending to be a city hall worker and stole the towns service vans and left them in weird places all over town. I went to people's houses and ate their food and made messes. When someone caught me at this, I made up an elaborate lie about being a new neighbor. Then I ended up driving a stolen van to the shopping center and trying to steal wigs from Lane Bryant. I didn't steal them, but soon I knew it was time to get away. I almost escaped in my friend Tania's van, but then the town's citizens and cops chased us down. D'oh.

I always have the dreams in which I can't dial the phone correctly or I dial 911 and they put me on hold and disconnect me. I hate that shit.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

I know I've been watching too many reality based t.v. shows because this week I had dreams that I was part of a group of strangers and I was afraid that I was going to be kicked out of the group.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

Jill, if you think Georgie C and I were lovers in a past life, gee, I guess I'll just have to believe you, though it so devastates me to do so, *snicker*. :) (And Jill, c'mon, just say it. You're a DURANIE. Proselytize, sistah! Yer in Good Company.)
Lisa D-- I know generally who Eddie Izzard is, but-- and this is with deepest apologies, since I know you had such high hopes for me-- I'm afraid I wouldn't recognise Mr Izzard if he came up and bit me on the nose. Eeek!
I thought of some general dream stuff to share. I have 3 recurring nightmares, though only one has been surfacing lately...#1, I'm trapped on an island trying to escape a T-Rex or King Kong (when I wake up from this one I'm always so annoyed with myself because it's just ridiculous. I had this nightmare LONG before Jurassic Park, but man, after seeing that flick, my dino-nightmares are now a bazillion times more terrifying). #2, I'm in a car attempting to drive up or down a vertical and/or inverted surface, knowing that doing so is totally impossible, and dreading the moment gravity kicks in. #3, (this is the one I have been having a lot recently) somehow, I am re-enrolled in high school, I have to repeat a grade for some reason. Now, you have to understand, in real life, I graduated h.s. in 1984 and college in 1990, and I cannot express how glad and relieved I am to be done with school. I hated school. *shuddering* So when I dream I'm stuck back into it, an overwhelming feeling of doom and dread engulfs me, and I spend the whole dream trying to figure out how this could possibly be happening, and how I can get out of it-- because in my school dreams, I am still 33, and I still have the job I've had for the past 8 years. My only mode of transportation becomes a bicycle, and I wind up stressed to the gills because I'm either missing work or missing school, and I'm perpetually late for whichever I ultimately attend. It SUCKS. The only good thing is when I wake up from the dream, every time, the sense of relief is unbelievable.
(just two more things, I promise, I'm almost done.)
I've lived alone for 4 years, and so it was not until friends slept over that I found out I talk, yell, and am physically abusive in my sleep. I kicked, hit, and pinched (!!) a friend who was sharing my queensized bed (I was mortified when she told me!). I've learned that, in my dreams, when I am trying desperately to yell-- but can't-- it means I am talking or yelling in my sleep. Last time my best friend stayed overnight, she told me that in the middle of the night I said, very clearly, "That bitch stole my prescription medicine!" She also said I was yelling so loudly that she's surprised my neighbors haven't complained. *cringe*

Last thing I want to say, and it is most certainly not the least important thing-- Erika, I'm so sorry your doggie is no longer physically with you. My beloved pup died 2 1/2 years ago and not a day has gone by I've not thought of her or talked to her. I believe that the dreams I have about her are real visits from her, and that brings me a lot of comfort and happiness. One morning not too long ago, I dreamt she had walked up beside my bed in the middle of the night, just like she used to do if I heard a noise or was scared. I heard her tags jingling and reached out to pet her back, which was level with the top of my mattress, but as I reached out, I woke up to my empty room, my hand reaching out to the right place, only she wasn't there. It had felt so real that I started to cry, but later, I was glad about it, because I know she was really there, her spirit was. No question in my mind.
anyway, Erika, much love to you, and if you need to talk, I'm here.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

The other night I dreamt I made out with Albert Finney. I suppose that would be okay if it was with a young Albert Finney, but it wasn't. What does it mean? Mancunian cravings? I don't know.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

Albert Finney played Daddy Warbucks in the 80's Annie movie. Ew, rosemary, you kissed Oliver Warbucks. ;)

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2000

I have had the "teeth dreams" multiple times over the years. Generally, either I'm having spill-over from reality (have been thinking I should go see the dentist) or, more helpfully (?), I'm going through a growing process.

The rationale is that dreams about teeth falling out are symbols of growth and maturity much like when you lose your baby teeth. So if you're dreaming of losing teeth, supposedly you're maturing or in a situation that requires you to grow and stretch. Your attitude about your teeth coming out reflects your attitude about the change. If you're like, "oh, how funny, my teeth are all laying in the sink" in your dream, then you're probably not too worried about the changes going on. If you're panicked, horrified and freaked, well, you surely get the analogy. And if they don't come out, you're resisting change.

Hope that helps. :)

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2000

Milla: Thanks for the explanation on the teeth! My mom had explained it to me once, but I forgot the meaning.

Here's a question -- can any of you wake up, like when the alarm goes off...hit snooze, and then go back into the same dream you were having? I can do this and let me tell you, it's not altogether good. For instance, if I'm having one of those sexy dreams, I will go back into it to finish whatever has been started (wacka wacka, wink wink wink). Consequently, I hit snooze way too many times and get up late, which I hate, but the dream is so darn good! Conversely, I can be having a bad dream/nightmare that will wake me up in the night, and then when I fall back to sleep, I'm right back in it again! On rare occassions I've had to actually turn on the light and read for a while to "erase" the dream from my mind. Is this a common or uncommon ability/trait?

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2000

common to me, Laura. This week I was late to work every day, and several of those mornings I have ZERO recollection of turning off the alarm (I don't have a snooze button). It's gotten so that I have to be ridiculously dramatic when I set the alarm just so I know I actually did it. Milla will tell you that she has to keep her alarm clock way across the room so that she must get up out of bed to turn it off, but she will also tell you that she is all too capable of getting up, walking over to the clock, hitting snooze, and returning to bed, all without waking up. Multiple times.
When I wake up from a bad dream in the middle of the night, I have to get up and walk around, to wake me up completely, in order to prevent a return to the same nightmare I escaped. You're right, it is like 'erasing' it.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2000

If I leave a shoe on the rug between the bed and the bathroom, I will wake up when I trip on it. You know... *thud* Ow! *shut off alarm*

So I risk injury every work day morning to avoid being tardy. :) It's on PURPOSE, leaving those shoes there. Yeah, it's all a clever plan! I'm not untidy, I'm SMRT!

(Hmm. Are any of you buying that for even a second?)

Seriously, I'm getting better, but, yeah, have indeed marched across the room and shut the alarm off, KNOWING I set it, only to wake up after any hope of getting to work on time griping because I didn't hear the alarm sound. Which it had to do, because it's been turned off.

Most recent dream (as told in another forum):

I watched the Dave Clark Five film "Having a Wild Weekend" last night. So, of course, Dave "Steve" Clark, "Saturnine good looks [and] well built" had 'kidnapped me' and we were chasing ourselves frantically around London, etc., and we were all in black and white.

MEAT FOR GO!!

Totally bizarre.

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2000

Directing your dreams (including being able to go back to the same one or erasing one--stopping in the middle of it if it's too scary) are all functions of "lucid dreaming." There are books that can teach you how to do this. I've gotten pretty good at stopping dreams I don't like. I once read a statistic that pointed out the amount of time we spend dreaming in our lives: The average REM cycle is about an hour and 45 minutes. Usually a person will go through about 3 or 4 dream cycles a night. Even discounting the amount of time it takes a person to drift into the REM cycle and back out of it, if you live to be about 70 years old, you'll spend at least 7 years of your life dreaming. Sorry to prattle on, but I think dreams are really fascinating and read a lot on the subject. I too, by the way, dream in color and can fly. I remember just about every one of them. I'd be wary of dream dictionaries, they're so subjective. Definitions vary depending on your worldview and all sorts of cultural connotations. For example, I've also read that teeth represent words and/or lies.

In my dream last night, I ran a hotel in India... except India was located in my childhood school playground.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2000

Huh. Maybe that's why I don't have nightmares anymore. I got so irked, after years and years and YEARS of disturbing, sleep- interrupting night terrors and nightmares that I just sat up after a bad dream and said I wasn't taking it any more, I'd had enough. Since then, no more bad dreams.

If something seems uncomfortable, I have the ability to direct, to an extent, what will happen. I get to back up and rewind and pick another choice if my first choice looks like it is going to be negative. I scoff at monsters and scary things and they vanish. It's weird. I have less control over happy dreams, which seems to be more of a reflection of my personality than anything else.

I used to be able to set a mental alarm clock before going to bed. I'd decide what time I needed to get up, look at the clock and estimate how many hours that would give me, and then go. I'd wake up before my alarm--at the time I specified--more often than not.

Also had a trick, which doesn't work as well now as it used to, where I'd be forced to deal with minimal sleep. Before unconsciousness, I'd repeat that I'd be totally refreshed and rejuvenated by what little sleep I was about to get. It usually worked.

Briefly, back when I mediated a lot, I could pick a topic to dream about, and have a fair chance of success. Can't do that now. Don't give my mind enough of a break, I suppose, that it is willing to give up some playtime at night for my whims.

I know what you mean by 'going back into a dream'. I can do that if I don't wake up fully. Unfortunately this means I've gotten up, turned off my alarm, and then gone back to bed, incorporating the whole thing into the dream I'm having.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2000

I can do that mental alarm clock thing too. It's not foolproof, but it does seem to work more times than not.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2000

The other day I had one where I was at a friend's house and there was an enormous bug flying around. It was red and bright blue and sort of shaped like a dragonfly and it was as big as my finger. Actually, it looked kind of like a Matchbox car with big bug wings. I was lying on the floor clutching my head scared shitless that it was going to land on me, and I was screaming "what IS it?!!! What IS IT?!!!!" and then I yelled myself awake. The scary/hilarious part is that when I opened my eyes I was still dreaming and I totally hallucinated that a this huge daddy longlegs jumped out of my hair and ran up the wall by my bed. So I woke up yelling and then started twitching and whimpering and finally I sat up and stared at this one spot on my wall for about ten minutes until I was convinced that there wasn't a spider there.

I think the bug signifies the diet cola I shouldn't be drinking before bed. Or some

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2000

The new Marie Claire (August 2000 purple issue with Lisa Kudrow on the cover) has a different take on the teeth dreams, FWIW. I forget what it was, but they didn't agree with me. :) If you don't like my theory, go there.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000